Barbecue grill and water smoker food cookers are widely employed in patio and outdoor areas to prepare various foods and meats for human consumption. Of recent popularity is the combination barbecue grill and water smoker cooker. One such cooker has a generally vertical tubular cooking compartment with an open bottom for air entry and top area opening closed by a removable cover. Horizontally mounted in the cooking compartment over a heat source are one or more vertically spaced food support grills. For water smoker cooking, a water pan is located below the grills and just above a lower heat source, such as a charcoal briquette pan with wood chips supported adjacent the bottom of the compartment. Heat from the charcoal produces a heated, moist atmosphere in the cooking compartment for slow, indirect smoke cooking of the food on the grills.
When the cooker is used for direct charcoal grill cooking, the water pan is removed from the cooking compartment and the charcoal pan raised to a location in the upper portion of the cooking compartment, just below the upper grill position, whereby direct heating of food on the grill can take place.
In certain other water smoker cooker constructions, permanent heating means, such as an electric or gas heating unit, are located in the lower portion of the cooking compartment to serve as the heat source for the water smoker cooker.
Because smoke, cooking residue, and greases normally build up in the cooking compartment of barbecue and water smoker cookers, it is desirable to routinely clean the interior of the cooker. Due to the size and outdoor location of such food cookers, cleaning often is a problem, particularly if the cooker has a permanent heating unit, such as an electric or gas burner, located in the bottom of the cooker, precluding use of a direct water or detergent wash of the cooking compartment.
In cookers with permanent heating units, it is also desirable to protect the heating units as much as possible from contamination by cooking greases and residue to maintain the efficiency and prolong the life of the same.